Hélène has been drawing animals since she was a child. She grew up in an environment where drawing and painting were all around. Her mother nurtured her love of art by painting herself as a hobby, and all members of the family indulged in it at one time or another at home.

 

She also loved exploring the forests around her home as a teenager and developed a passion for birdwatching at a nature summer camp when she was15. As a young adult, she roamed the natural world, sketchbooks in hand, spending hours observing and sketching the animals and birds she had learned to recognize at a glance. Then, influenced by the Canadian wildlife painter Robert Bateman, she began learning acrylics, which she preferred to the oils her mother and sisters were using. During this time, she learned the basics of painting by adding transparent layers.

 

Her keen interest in wildlife, environment and ecology led her to pursue university studies in Biology with a major in Ecology. She therefore took a long break from creating during her teaching career, promising herself she would return to painting when she had more time. During that period, she acquired a small farm to indulge her passion for horses.

  

She resumed painting more seriously in 2022.  She then decided to follow the advice of an art teacher who saw her acrylic paintings 30 years earlier, and tried watercolor. It was the beginning of a new journey. She could work with the pigment's transparency like never before. Her adventure with the small farm also led her to add scenes of rural life, farm animals, and pets to her repertoire of subjects. She considers that this wonderful, versatile, and fascinating medium which allows exceptional rendering of light, offers a lot of new possibilities to explore.